Chapter 1 The Beginning

It was at this moment that Zhou Buyi and his party encountered Su Zhou—a series of reasons and coincidences led them to mistakenly believe that Su Zhou was sent by the An Dynasty to hinder the demon general, something that had happened more than once before… and that was the cause of the battle.

After Zhou Buyi finished speaking, the entire escort team of fourteen bowed to Su Zhou. The three leaders even knelt on one knee, cupping their fists. Zhou Buyi lowered his tone as much as possible: "If possible, I implore Brother Su to let us leave—escorting the relics of the Holy Monk is of utmost importance. The sooner they arrive, the sooner the divine weapon can be forged, and the sooner we can launch a counterattack against the Demon Emperor, destroy his empire, and restore peace to the world!"

"We implore Shaoxia Su to let us leave!" The crowd echoed in unison.

"No, I never said I wouldn't let you go... Sigh, go, go. If I had known this, we wouldn't have had to fight."

It was the first time Su Zhou had been begged like this. He scratched his head and could only sigh.

Then, Su Zhou tightened his grip on the spear shaft, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and turned around, seemingly indicating that he would 'no longer interfere'. This clear and practical attitude immediately relieved everyone.

At the same time, just as Su Zhou silently looked up at the sky.

In the world of the mind.

Su Zhou began to question Yala.

"Yala, this Shenmu (divine tree) Dragon, this Panlong (coiled dragon) bloodline... does it have anything to do with you? This really isn't your power hybridized with that Shenmu, is it?"

"Hybridized?! How can you say such a thing!" The serpent spirit seemed insulted and replied angrily, "I already said it's a 'Shenmu' Dragon, so what does it have to do with me—but now, I understand which fellow this world's Shenmu is derived from."

"There are two origins of all Shenmu in the world, one is—Jianmu, Fusang, the Nine Worlds Tree, the Wutong Tree, the Ruomu Tree—the 'World Tree'.

"The other is—the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Tree of Life, the Pan Tao (immortality peach), the Bodhi Tree, the Undying Tree—the 'Tree of the Great Dao (Great Path)'.

"The so-called World Tree has no fruit, no descendants, transforms the scattered into a whole, and is itself the supreme Shenmu.

"The Tree of the Great Dao has Dao fruits, can multiply into forests, transforms the whole into scattered, and derives endless mystical Shenmu."

"The god who dominates this world is obviously the 'Tree of the Great Dao'." At this point, Yala frowned and thought for a while before finally saying, "As for the so-called Panlong... I can't say it has nothing to do with me. All the legends of the realms are the result of the mutual exchange of information between existences like us, plus the integration of some local world-specific information. Especially the form. For example, among dragons and snakes, there is also the wood-attributed Azure Dragon, which is actually a derivative born under the influence of the Shenmu legends."

"And Su Zhou, the myths and legends of the heavens are not consistent. The myths in your world are like this, but they may not be the same in other worlds. In these boundless realms, the 'present' has not been determined as 'official history'."

Speaking of this, the serpent spirit's words were full of meaning. Su Zhou couldn't understand it for a moment, but he deeply remembered these words in his heart.

In reality, Su Zhou came back to his senses. He turned around again and said to Zhou Buyi and his party, who had already gotten up and seemed ready to leave, "By the way, everyone, I have a request."

Under the somewhat nervous and puzzled gazes of the crowd, Su Zhou flicked the spear shaft and effortlessly lifted the backpack, carrying it on his back.

Then, he cupped his fist and smiled easily at everyone, "That is, take me with you to Mount Taibai."

—An uninvited internet giant... not.

—When the uninvited otherworldly hero Su Zhou expressed his desire to go to Mount Taibai with them, not only the escort team was surprised, but even Yala marveled in his heart.

"Su Zhou, they must have experts stationed there to respond. You have my undying blood and ate the Wisdom Fruit. To be honest, these two combined are a bit similar to the Undying Root of the Shenmu—I guess they won't be able to tell. If you go, you might be treated as a spy and beaten to death."

Although that's what it said, the serpent spirit had no intention of dissuading him. It just shook its head, and it was impossible to tell whether it was nodding or shaking its head, "Or did you hear that the An Dynasty is harming civilians, and your righteous spring has relapsed, and you want to join these righteous people in讨平(tao ping, eliminate) the unjust?"

"But don't forget, your purpose here is to increase your strength."

"What's wrong with the righteous spring? Some people like to eat delicious food, some people like figurines and dolls, some people like to flirt with girls or men, and some people like robots, and they can climax when they see large armored engines roaring—at least my righteous spring is doing good things!"

Su Zhou was very dissatisfied with Yala's attitude, and his brows furrowed deeply. He righteously retorted in his heart, "First of all, my Devouring Demon Lord's神通(shentong, divine power) requires me to kill evil and seize souls to become stronger quickly. And Yala, you said it yourself, that Panrong Undying Tree is the manifestation of a 'Great Existence' in this world, which means it's a 'Cthulhu'!"

"Although I don't know the current state of this Cthulhu, it seems to be within the scope of what can be handled. As long as the An Dynasty is destroyed and this Shenmu is burned, the source of the 'Great Seal' shaking should also be reduced, right? The safe time for Earth should also be extended."

Finally, Su Zhou made a summary: "The An Dynasty is full of treachery, I can tell that just by listening to it, and it's a pleasure to kill them. And there's a Cthulhu as a big target—regardless of who I fight, I can temper my skills. In this matter, both publicly and privately, I have to go and爆(bao, explode) them!"

"Um, and the righteous army can forge divine weapons. In that case, I can also ask them to help me reforge my big spear, or even a set of transcendent armor! That way, I'll be more confident in going back to destroy that family group that's messing with curses!"

"Your thinking is quite clear. It seems that the Wisdom Fruit is really useful." Yala praised, but it wondered, "But why do you trust such a group of people's words so easily? You haven't seen the An Dynasty's forces with your own eyes. You're just believing one side of the story. What if the facts are the opposite..."

"That's simple." As a skilled argumentative person, Su Zhou began to argue even more when he smelled the argumentative scent emanating from Yala, "If it's really the opposite, I'll rebel on the spot. Don't think I'm a good person who can be bound by this kind of thing."

"Yala, do you think I'm the kind of person who would sit idly by or even assist evil?"

Saying this, he laughed loudly in his heart, his laughter relaxed and happy.

—This world is the stage for me to show my talents and uphold justice!

"You just want to kill bad guys... Never mind, getting rid of evil is also doing good. As the saying goes, 'evil is the lack of good'. Perhaps this world needs a guy like you who 'overflows with justice' to inject a little 'justice' into them with the criticism of weapons."

Seeing that Su Zhou was so opinionated, Yala was naturally happy to let him go... To be honest, this kind of guy who doesn't need any guidance at all and whose first thought after encountering a problem is 'There's a dungeon here, I want to clear it!' 'Dungeon? Where to go? Who to kill? How many?' is really very easy to train.

Cultivation is like this. Only those who enjoy themselves and don't ask why can concentrate and grow quickly.

As for this world's 'Cthulhu', that so-called Panrong Undying Tree...

"Hey, back then, the little guy Nidhogg gnawed at the roots of the Nine Worlds Tree, and Zhuanxu cut off the Jianmu to separate humans and gods. You even laughed at how the incarnation of the 'World Tree' was cut down again and again." The serpent spirit's soft laughter in the deepest part of its heart could only be heard by itself, "This time, 'Tree of the Great Dao', it's finally your turn."

"In order to maintain the peace of the Earth, in order to prevent the destruction of the world, as a cute and charming villain, I'll give you face and personally bring people to cut down your incarnation!"

In reality, Zhou Buyi and the others, after discussing it, realized that they had no reason or right to refuse.

"If Benefactor Su is really an Undying Demon General and wants to pretend to be stupid and sneak into the Mount Taibai stronghold to sabotage it, then that's not bad, but really stupid."

Although the Fang Hui monk had half of his teeth broken and spoke with a lisp, he was still brash because he had received holy water treatment with extra ingredients and did not have any prejudice against Su Zhou because of this: "I think, if he was really that stupid, he wouldn't have been able to defeat us together in a few moves—what's more, there are still three Grandmasters, more than a dozen Experts from the Hundred Schools, and dozens of righteous people stationed in the stronghold. Even if the Demon Emperor personally came, if he was just one person, I'm afraid he would die with regret!"

"Can we stop him if he insists on going?" This was the answer of the swordsman Liu Xizhao. This delicate woman, who still had the palm print on her face from Su Zhou's slap to prevent her from committing suicide, hugged her sword and said lightly, "Did you see his action of shaking the spear before? At least eight thousand catties of force going upwards, enough to overturn a carriage—even if he doesn't know any martial arts techniques, if he sweeps the spear horizontally like a stick, only Fang Hui and Brother Zhou can block one move."

"You overestimate me." Zhou Buyi shook his head with a broken sword, "Experts in external martial arts who train their strength can train such brute force. The force of a Grandmaster of this lineage at full strength is even greater than Shaoxia Su. But don't forget, he was always standing on the black wooden stake when he fought us... Can you exert your full strength while standing on a wooden stake?"

While saying this, Zhou Buyi couldn't help but turn his head to look at Su Zhou... Only at this time did he realize that the other party was a little shorter than him, and the 'youthful vigor' and 'self-confidence' almost written on his face could not be faked, he was completely a half-grown boy who was not even twenty years old!

Is this really someone who is younger and stronger than me?

Where did this monster come from!

At this time, Su Zhou was walking towards Zhou Buyi and the others, who were still discussing in low voices.

In his previous communication with Yala, he had already figured out how to explain his origin.

"I learned a lesson last time. This time I learned—speaking frankly and communicating openly will not cause misunderstandings."

Su Zhou was not a fool, of course, he could see the suspicion of everyone present, and he also knew that he, who had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Wisdom, might really have a similar aura to that Panrong Undying Tree.

If he just ran to the other party's stronghold casually, he would definitely be besieged by the righteous army of the Hundred Schools who suspected that he was a spy—the other party was fighting a life-and-death Daoist struggle for the empire and the common people with the An Dynasty's demon army. People like himself, no matter how sincerely they wanted to kill evil and help the people, would not be trusted.

So, instead of cautiously misleading his identity, it would be better to make a big one—

Just as everyone was nervously looking up at him because of his approach, Su Zhou simply and neatly took off his contact lenses (Shao Qiming sponsored), poured spiritual power into his eyes, and revealed his cyan-purple dragon pupils that radiated spiritual light.

The 'spiritual pressure' originating from a powerful spiritual life form, enough to dispel潜龙种(qian long zhong, hidden dragon breeds) in a city, began to spread—in an instant, all the beasts within a few miles instantly woke up and huddled in their nests, shivering.

Among them, there were also weaker martial artists.

"This, these eyes—Shaoxia Su, you are not human!?"

"My Buddha! Benefactor Su, this aura of yours, is like those魔兵(mo bing, demon soldiers)..."

"Are you finally not going to hide it anymore?!"

In the crowd of exclamations, there were exclamations of amazement at the dragon eyes, those who were perceptive noticed the trace of Shenmu aura related to the Wisdom Fruit that Su Zhou deliberately released, and there were also those who were originally on guard and were frightened and immediately drew their swords, ready to fight to the death.

"You're not human! Your whole family isn't human!"

But what greeted them was Su Zhou's kindergarten-level reply in annoyance: "Alright, I know you have always been suspicious of my origin, and only now have I figured out the current situation of Shenzhou—now it's time to tell you my true identity."

—If this world is really a little related to those games made by Bow Qiying II, then my statement will not be any problem!

DLC [Kunlun Divine Mountain], Bronze Divine Tree 'Jianmu', I hope I haven't remembered anything wrong!

According to the lines already prepared in his mind, the black-haired young man cleared his throat, and then said sternly: "I wonder if you have ever heard of, [Jianmu towers above Lingqiu, and Pan Tao grows beside the giant sea]? The Shenmu in the world are not unique. The Panrong Undying Tree originates from the islands of the South China Sea, and there are other Shenmu in the world that are opposite to it."

"I am not talented, but I am a descendant of the Shenmu inheritance from the Western Holy Mountain!"